Thread: Hundreds rally in Portland for immigration rights

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Hundreds rally in Portland for immigration rights
Posted by The Oregonian newsroom September 3, 2006 14:45
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Several hundred people are gathered in the downtown Portland Park Blocks this afternoon for what organizers call a "Solidarity March for Immigrant Rights."

They say they want to "tell Congress that it's time to fix our broken immigration system."

After speeches, they plan to march down Southwest Columbia, then north to Burnside.

Many groups are involved, and there doesn't seem to be unanimity on a what immigration reform means.

Legislation to tighten border security and change the nation's immigration laws has been stalled in Congress for months because lawmakers can't agree on competing House and Senate bills.

The main sticking point -- whether to offer a path to legal residency to most of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States -- has galvanized groups on both sides.

Immigrants and their supporters are planning marches this week in Phoenix, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to push for legalization.

Organizers say they are expecting hundreds of thousands of people from 17 states to converge on the National Mall in Washington on Thursday with at least 50 buses coming from the New York City area.

Most of the immigrant groups support a Senate-passed bill that includes a large temporary worker program and would give many current illegal immigrants a chance at permanent residency and citizenship.

Is it hundreds or a thousand?

http://www.registerguard.com

Portland immigration rally draws 1,000 supporters
The Associated Press
Published: Monday, September 4, 2006

PORTLAND - With a jab at Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton and demands for sweeping changes to immigration laws, more than 1,000 immigrants and supporters marched through Portland on Sunday, one of several such Labor Day weekend events planned across the country.

The march coincides with signs of growing sentiment against undocumented immigrants among some Oregonians and precedes congressional efforts to resolve differences in two very different immigration bills in the House and Senate.

The Oregon Republican Party approved a resolution in July to deny citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil to illegal and legal immigrants who are not citizens, an action that would likely require amending the U.S. Constitution.

Saxton has not endorsed the resolution but has advocated strict controls on undocumented residents. As the demonstration passed Saxton's campaign office Sunday, marchers stopped to chant, ''Saxton, immigrant basher. We'll remember in Nov- ember.''

There was no sign that anybody was in the office.

There have been similar marches in Portland and Salem this year.

(Note: this one is similar to the above story, but with some additional details)


http://www.katu.com/stories/88869.html


September 4, 2006

Rally highlights political depth of immigration issue
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By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER
Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. - With a jab at Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton and demands for sweeping changes to immigration laws, more than 1,000 immigrants and supporters marched through Portland on Sunday, one of several such Labor Day weekend events planned across the country.

The march coincides with signs of growing sentiment against undocumented immigrants among some Oregonians and precedes congressional efforts to resolve differences in two very different immigration bills in the House and Senate.

The Oregon Republican Party approved a resolution in July to deny citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil to illegal and legal immigrants who are not citizens, an action that would likely require amending the U.S. Constitution.

Saxton has not endorsed the resolution but has advocated strict controls on undocumented residents. As the demonstration passed Saxton's campaign office Sunday, marchers stopped to chant, "Saxton, immigrant basher. We'll remember in November."

There was no sign that anybody was in the office.

Aside from the electoral politics of the issue, small groups in Oregon have begun harassing day laborers, many of whom are undocumented, and the employers who hire them.

Jorge Torres, a member of Voz, a Portland group trying to organize day laborers, told those at the rally that those workers are the ones who "keep houses clean, gardens tended, restaurants open." He said the laborers do "the dirtiest, most dangerous, most difficult jobs," while also paying taxes, renting apartments and buying at the supermarkets.

He noted the recent arrival of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in Cornelius, where members monitor day-labor sites and photograph license plates of prospective employers to send to federal immigration and tax officials.

"We are in solidarity with you; you are not alone," he said of workers in the suburban Washington County.

Arturo Sepulveda, who has been helping the United Farm Workers organize workers at the massive Three Mile Canyon dairy farm in Eastern Oregon said: "Our message is that we are human beings, we are not terrorists. We love America. We would give our lives for it. But the holy ground we stand on is ours also."

There have been similar marches in Portland and Salem this year, some drawing several thousand participants.

By most estimates there are between 11 million and 12 million undocumented residents in the United States.

Sunday's event was peaceful, although police ushered at least one sidewalk heckler away from the march. Three people carrying a cardboard sign reading "No borders, no nation," a slogan of groups favoring a crackdown in undocumented immigration, took part without incident

As costumed performers danced and smoke from copal, incense used in traditional Mexican ceremonies, wafted across Portland's Park Blocks, people signed messages on a huge cloth banner that is to be sent to Congress. It urges immigration laws that are more lenient than either being considered in Washington.

"No human being is illegal," one person wrote. "We are workers, not delinquents," wrote another.

Efforts to enact a broad immigration policy have stalled. House Republicans pushed through a tough border security and enforcement bill, while the Senate bill would give illegal immigrants a chance to gain legal status. A conference committee will try to resolve the differences.

At Sunday's rally, Tom Chamberlain, the head of the Oregon AFL-CIO, said the United States has "a dirty little secret" in that some people gain and keep power by dividing instead of uniting the nation.

He said immigration policy is being driven by political and corporate interests. "That's not the America I Love," he said.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

I was out of the loop today, glad to see you got this story from The Oregonian today.

I am sure if you go to: http://danielisright.blogspot.com/ he has some interesting thoughts on the events. This guy lives near Portland, is involved with Oregonians for Immigration Reform and attends the protests with some regularity.

The Oregonian likes to make it look like OFIR harasses "homeowners and businesses", but what they are not telling the public in the paper that they are not being harassed at all, but being informed that they are committing an illegal act by attmepting to hire illegal aliens, or people who cannot provide documentation they are here legally. Then they get their license plates photgraphed and sent to the appropriate authorities. This is the harassment the liberal rag is talking about!